AzoftBlogApple AppStore & Google Play Trends: Promising Categories & Most Sold In-app Purchases at a Glance

Apple AppStore & Google Play Trends: Promising Categories & Most Sold In-app Purchases at a Glance

By Anna Orlova on February 20, 2014

As mobile application markets continue to explode, it is difficult to keep track of all the changing tendencies of the global app landscape. Perusing through recent AppMarket Reports from Priori, we've come up with some data on US, UK and Central European AppStore & Google Play activity that mobile developers and designers alike can use to gain an overview of recent app development trends. The areas in focus are:

Most popular app categories

Whether you want to go up against current stars in the most promising categories, or choose to make your app shine in a less competitive one, this information can be helpful for your planning strategy. The following categories held the largest portion of popular apps in December, 2013 according to Priori's data:

Chart 1.1 Categories with the largest number of top free & paid apps, AppStore, the USA. The % of Downloads value tells how many downloads are generated by top apps in given category in proportion to total downloads generated by those apps across all categories. E.g. if all apps in Priori's Top Apps generated 1.000.000 downloads, and 500.000 of these were generated by games, then the Games value will be 50%.

Chart 1.2 Categories with the largest number of top free & paid apps, Google Play, the USA.

Chart 1.3 Categories with the largest number of top free & paid apps, AppStore, Europe.

Chart 1.4 Categories with the largest number of top free & paid apps, Google Play, Europe.

Monetization trends

Monetization types & prices

The revenue model shows no drastic changes. There are still four main monetization types:

Free Apps

Paid Apps: the pay-before-download model

Free + In-App Purchase: free app with the option of purchasing virtual goods from within the app

Paid + In-App Purchase: app monetized by a combination of pay-before-download and the option of purchasing virtual goods from within the app

Chart 2.1 Monetization type ratio, AppStore, the USA. Apps with In-App Purchase as % of the Total Number of Apps: 10.03%.

Chart 2.2 Range of top app prices, AppStore, Europe. Apps with In-App Purchase as % of the Total Number of Apps: 5.75%.

In-app purchase

The following charts show which app categories have the most activity on in-app purchases:

Chart 3.1 Categories with the largest number of apps with in-app purchase (IAP), AppStore, the USA, the UK, Europe.

The following in-app purchase items are sold the most in the USA AppStore:

Who are the most successful publishers?

‘Learning from the best’ is a universal practice and it works just fine when it comes to mobile app development, too. It’s not about stealing, but observing and re-creating a UI, functional approach and software solution that your audience needs and likes better than anyone else’s.

Here’s a list of top developers whose work may inspire you to come up with a fresh look or new idea: